Chileans in Paris

Outside the French Embassy in Santiago.

At least three Chileans were among those killed in the Paris attacks, including a musician, the niece and grandniece of the country’s ambassador to Mexico, Ricardo Núñez.  The ambassador told the Chilean press that the two women  had been in the Bataclan concert hall.

“They were taken hostage and we know they were murdered one by one in a cold and brutal way,” he said. http://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2015/11/14/cancilleria-informa-de-tres-chilenos-muertos-en-los-atentados-de-paris/

There are approximately 26,000 Chileans residing in France, many of whom arrived as political asylum seekers during the Pinochet dictatorship. In Santiago, a small crowd gathered outside the French Embassy to lay flowers and sing La Marseillaise.

Chile on the big screen

The film premiered in Chile in August

This month The 33, the long-awaited film about the 2010 mine rescue in northern Chile, opens in the United States, and nine survivors of the accident have filed suit against their lawyers, charging that they were cheated out of their share of proceeds from the film.

Following the rescue the miners were showered with gifts and trips, including visits to Disneyland and Israel, and they formed a company which they expected would help them share earnings and manage their finances. According to Luis Urzúa, the group’s leader, the contracts they signed were not what the lawyers said they would be, and they received only 17 percent of the $150 million paid to their organization. Almost all of the miners have suffered health problems in wake of the rescue, especially post-traumatic stress, and several have had trouble finding and keeping jobs. The Guardian has this story on the lawsuit:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/03/chilean-miners-cheated-out-of-profits-hollywood-film-the-33

And here’s a link to the official trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOoIBOYqHyw

Another film about Chile, scheduled to be released early next year, is Colonia, a thriller about the infamous German settlement Colonia Dignidad used by the Pinochet dictatorship as a detention and torture center (see earlier posts https://notesontheamericas.wordpress.com/2011/05/25/once-more-colonia-dignidad/ and https://notesontheamericas.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/the-never-ending-colonia-dignidad-horror-show/ ) Some of the settlers, however, have remained in the community and have sought to turn the site into a tourist destination. The New York Times story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/06/world/americas/villa-baviera-chile-reinvents-itself-for-tourists.html?ref=americas&_r=0